A Traitor's Play
by FrozenLights
Summary: Itachi played the villain and traitor to both his clan and village. But what would happen if he met someone who had walked a similar path? And what would happen to his plans if his brother didn't want to kill him? Drabble-fic. Sasuke discovers he is the reincarnation of Snape.
1. Reunion

**A/N:**For want of happy endings and plowing through writer's block. We'll see what happens.

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**Act I.  
Reunion**

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**Now: **Itachi**.**

When Itachi first saw his brother in the reflection of their target's forehead protector, (pale and dark eyed _and so, so, much taller_), he waited with equal parts hope and dread for that innocent face to twist into anger and hatred, "It's been awhile… Sasuke."

"Uchiha Itachi"

At those words, Kisame finally turned his head to acknowledge the most recent arrival to their little group in the middle of the hotel corridor. If amusement could be a poison, his partner's voice was laced with it, "Hou… You seem to be familiar with Itachi." He felt Kisame's gaze land on him.

They'd been working together for several years now and had developed a mutual respect for one another with the understanding that neither would hesitate to the kill the other. It wasn't a healthy friendship by any standard definition, but it was unexpectedly comfortable.

He didn't need that familiarity to know that the man was scenting for blood, sensing a delicate situation and poking to see where it would hurt the most out of bored curiosity, "Who is he?"

He studied the scared little boy in front of him. Was he the reason his brother was here? "He's my younger brother."

He heard Kisame shift, interest noticeably growing, "I heard the whole Uchiha clan was destroyed…by _you_."

Ignoring the gasp of apparent recognition by the jinchuriki, he activated his sharingan – a guaranteed reminder of that night – and slowly turned around to face his brother.

A part of him was relieved to see that his brother had managed to activate those eyes. He was slightly disquieted, however, by the apparent lack of expression on Sasuke's face. The child had always worn his heart on his sleeve.

Though, it wouldn't completely surprise him to find that he had caused that change in character.

"Why did you leave me alive?"

A small pang of dismay dug its way deep, where he swiftly buried it._ Foolish little brother, has no one taught you not to leave an opening like that? _Why had the authorities let him leave the village? Carefully, he cultivated and channeled that general disgust towards ineptitude to the surface,"If you've forgotten, perhaps I shouldn't have." He raised his killer instinct. To his left, Kisame chuckled darkly, clearly enjoying the latest turn of intents.

Despite his actions, Sasuke hadn't responded. Itachi narrowed his eyes.

This whole time, Sasuke hadn't so much as blinked.

The pain behind his eyes was almost a familiar presence by now, but it was a reminder that he didn't have _time _for this. He didn't have the time to linger and memorize the features of his brother's face – at least not with a Sannin nearby, and not while he was on assignment.

But he never would have the time because his days had been numbered, if not from that day, then by his own body.

_Those thoughts_. He blinked as he registered the uncharacteristic turn they had taken and even before he had fully settled on his conclusions, he leapt.

He grasped empty air and sharply pivoted in time to hear a gasp of pain. Glancing up, he saw that Kisame had swung down instinctively with his Samehada, the tip of it scraping down along the back of his brother's upper arm – where it was wrapped around the blond child's torso.

Kisame snarled; his face was contorted in a rictus of surprise and excited anticipation. But even as the tendons in Kisame's hand stood out in preparation for the backhand follow-up swing, there was a small pop - and his brother was gone.

Deactivating his Sharingan, he silently stood, while Kisame remained frozen with his arm outstretched.

There had been a foreign presence in his mind and all indications pointed to Sasuke being the culprit. Hidden in his long sleeves, he felt his fingertips twitch.

What had his brother done?

Abruptly, Kisame snapped the sword back and replaced it on his back. Kisame let out a breath that was half a laugh, half a sigh, "Saaah, why _didn't_ you kill him?"

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**A/N Cont:** Can't believe I actually started another story involving the Uchihas. I blame Itachi.

Next up is a 'Then:' chapter, where Snape 'wakes up'. Two guesses which scene he wakes up in. hah.

Updates are probably going to be irregular.

Thanks for reading!


	2. Awakening

**A/N: **Might be slightly confusing. Decided not to have two personalities (cuz that's been done like a dozen times before), and so we have this half melded…person. It's like when you suddenly wake up in the midst of a dream and you're in the middle of figuring out which reality/identity is 'real'.

When in doubt, assume that 'he' refers to Sasuke/Severus.

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**Act II.  
Awakening**

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**Then: **Sasuke/Severus**.**

He woke to screams. _Why was it always screams? _

Fire burned through his body, and the familiar taint of malevolence echoed from the back of his mind.

He ached with exhaustion – the kind where self-awareness was dreaded. Why was he awake? He thought he'd been free (_of responsibility and obligation, of guilt and hate and of always never being __**enough**_)_. As_ much as he was tempted to just sleep – _hadn't he earned that?_- he forced himself to the surface, away from his momentary self-pity and despair. He was certain those had been a child's screams.

Feeling the cold dampness of the dirt beneath his fingers, he used the chill to anchor him to reality. Slowly, he pushed himself up. He was distantly aware of the sudden silence around him. The prickling on the back of his neck told him that he was being watched. (When had he ever not been watched?)

With long practice, he ignored the whispers, the promises of power- of being someone other than himself, and opened his eyes. A part of him was alarmed that the whispers sounded different than they normally did. The other part, _the coldly practical part_, was already analyzing the situation before him.

A girl, beaten and bruised, was pushing herself up on the ground in front of him.

Pale green eyes stared up him with concern, "Sasuke…"

Narrowing his eyes, he fought the fogginess in his mind and analyzed the spark of recognition that accompanied that name.

"Your body… "

He followed her gaze back to himself and looked down at his hand. It was smaller than he remembered – more calloused but with less scars. His fingers were straighter; they'd never had to mend, twisted, from interrogations.

But no, that was how it should be.

He flexed his hand, feeling somewhat disjointed, as if it wasn't really him in control, and then barely held back a flinch as he noticed the inky flames crawling down his arm, unfurling across his skin.

The simmering black rage threatened to overwhelm him for a moment, and he slapped a hand over where he knew he had been bitten. He'd been tainted again.

"What's this? Too frightened to speak, freak?"

Digging in his fingertips, until his nails threatened to break the skin, he forced everything behind his occlumency shields, until all there was left was the present, and looked up.

He was standing in the middle of a forest – an ancient forest, judging from the height of the trees and width of the tree trunks. The speaker stood directly in front of him, perhaps two classroom spans away. The boy, fifteen at most, wore an openly antagonistic grin on his face. There was a spatter of blood on the child's right cheek. He automatically skimmed the boy's –Zaku's – surface thoughts before taking in the rest of the scene without a word.

The onlookers had clearly been in the midst of a fight before he had woken up. If the pink-haired girl in front of him hadn't clued him in, the other two boys on the ground closest to her would have. There was a second female on the ground - most likely the third member of Zaku's team, the member responsible for the fading annoyance that he had detected in the convoluted mess of bloodthirst and excitement that had encompassed Zaku's thoughts. Apparently she had gotten herself taken hostage.

He turned to his left, staring into the single eye of the mummified looking child. He could see Zaku stiffen at the apparent dismissal, "So you're here to assassinate me?" It was like kicking up dirt from the bottom of a pond. As his words stirred up more thoughts, he collected the drifting thoughts and delved deeper into this Dosu's mind, "…by O-ro-chi-maru's orders?" He stumbled over the unfamiliar name.

Surprise flared and he backed out of the child's mind as instinct warned him of an impending attack. Glancing over, he saw Zaku sneer, "That's right! So there's no need for more chatter. Goodbye!" As the boy raised both arms with the clear intent to attack, Severus frowned and raised his own hand, almost reflexively.

There wasn't any time to think really, not if he wanted to protect his allies. He saw the boy, _Shikamaru_ – his mind whispered, signal for a retreat from the corner of his eye right as he focused on his own counterattack.

"_**Imperio****.**_"

It wasn't as easy as he'd thought it'd be. Zaku's mind was apparently slightly more disciplined than he had first assumed. He felt a strong gust of wind blow by, whipping around his clothes and hair, and saw Sakura duck in fear only to hesitantly raise her head as she realized that the wind had stopped with that relatively soft blast.

He narrowed his eyes as he took in her swollen face.

"Zaku?" The heavily bandaged boy took a step toward his teammate, whose face had abruptly gone slack.

Sakura had turned to look at their attacker. He crouched down, and slowly extended a hand out towards her face.

"Zaku? What are you doing?" There was poorly concealed fear in that deep voice – to his ears, at least.

She would need Bilberry extract to reduce the swelling, but overall, it didn't look like anything had been broken. Why did she have pink hair?-_she always had pink hair._

He frowned, his shields were slipping; no, they were dissolving as if he was a novice again – _or just plain tired. _He reinforced his shields.

"Zaku! What did he do to you?"

He looked up. Dosu had inched closer to his fellow teammate and was about an arms' length away. Letting his hand drop from her face, he stood up, "Sakura."

He heard her startle as he met Dosu's gaze. Without breaking it to look at her, he asked, "Did _they_ hurt you?"

Dosu stiffened as Zaku abruptly clapped both hands over his ears expressionlessly. It was an innocuous position for most people.

Seeing Dosu's narrowed eye, he was glad that he wouldn't have to clarify what that position would mean for a shinobi whose attack came out of his hands. He heard, rather than saw, her nod.

"Wait."

He stared, impassive. Dosu slowly brought his hands out. One of them held a scroll. Even without using basic legilimency, it was clear that the sound-nin knew he was outnumbered and had decided to cut his losses.

Deliberately, carefully, Dosu laid the scroll on the ground, "Here's a gift for you. Please let us leave."

He raised an eyebrow, "What's to stop us from killing you and taking the scroll?"

"Sasuke!"

He ignored the surprised condemnation in her voice and amended, "What's to stop _me_ from killing you?" He wouldn't kill a child – _they were not children_ – but he needed to confirm that this wasn't a bluff on their part. Otherwise, Dosu's move didn't make any sense. Then again, it wasn't like the boy had that many options left.

As he felt Dosu's mind hurriedly examine and dismiss excuses and reasons that might appeal to a genin of Konoha, he drawled, "Orochimaru wanted your team to kill me."

He could almost taste the bitterness in the boy's mind. Yes. They had never cared about the exam.

_What exam?-havetogatherthescroll-_He blinked, breaking the connection to the sound-nin briefly. He couldn't keep this up for much longer.

"Yes, but-"

Rebuilding his shields, he interrupted, "But he already tried to kill us."

Betrayal, anger, denial, and desperation flashed through the child's mind. He was slightly impressed how little of it showed in Dosu's voice when he replied, "If you let us live – "

He interrupted again, "You'll find out – and tell us."

Dosu nodded and failed to hide his nerves as his shoulders visibly tensed when Zaku dropped his arms and stepped towards the scroll.

_Not enough. One scroll wasn't enough_. He dismissed those thoughts. If he had any hope of continuing in this exam, he would need to end this quickly. As he commanded Zaku to throw the scroll over, he turned to Dosu only to pause.

_Amateurs_. They were all foolish children.

"Zaku will collect Kin and go. Follow him until I release him, and don't bother us again."

Dosu nodded hurriedly. As Zaku gathered Kin into his arms, Dosu turned to follow.

His shields were crumbling again, and his own instincts warred against one another.

_Stupid sentimentality. _He opened his mouth, "Dosu."

The boy stopped even as his teammate continued to walk.

"Before you go, consider the nature of your master's power – where it comes from and how it grows." He wasn't exactly sure what he was trying to say. It was a warning – most likely a pointless one.

He could see confusion in Sakura's eyes as she darted glances between him and the boy.

The boy said nothing and left.

But it was a warning he wished he'd had.

As soon as Dosu had cleared the grounds, he sank to the ground.

"Sasuke!" Sakura rushed to his side, hands hovering uncertainly for a moment before descending and wrapping him into a hug.

As she sobbed into his neck, he stared blankly over her shoulder.

He wasn't Sasuke anymore, but yet he still was. He raised shaky hands and pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes. Now that the threat was gone, he still had to deal with this… identity crisis. One distant part of him thought it was ironic that he'd missed his mid-life crisis only to find it now, in this sort of place.

He grimaced at the discomfiting feel of hot tears dripping down his neck and moved his hands from his eyes to pat his teammate's back awkwardly.

He was dead, and now alive. He had the skills and instincts of two lifetimes, from two cultures.

He let out a harsh breath and felt his eyes begin to prickle. Blinking rapidly, he felt his breathing begin to pick up and fought the urge to laugh.

This, wasn't this reincarnation of some sort? It would figure that he couldn't have been reborn in peacetime. It would figure that he'd be reincarnated into a world where his family was _dead_. (Because wasn't that what he deserved? After ignoring their pleas for his help as they died*, he didn't know why he should be surprised that his own was ignored.)

His moment of self-pity was interrupted as an idle gust of wind blew Sakura's hair straight into his mouth. Coughing, he pulled back.

"Sasuke! Are you ok?!"

"Look at what you did, billboard-brow!"

"Shutup Ino-pig!"

Spitting the taste of dirt out to the side, he leaned back as he saw the rest of his classmates join him. There was an odd sense of camaraderie in the air. As the last of the adrenaline drained away, he shivered – catching the attention of both girls fighting and shoving above him. (There was an odd sense of relief as it became clear that Sakura wasn't that badly injured).

"Lemme see your temperature, Sasuke – I know-"

"Getaway you pig!"

"Why don't you make me?"

When he quickly surveyed the scene for an escape route, his eye caught the eyes of the other two boys, who were hovering over Naruto, and clearly snickering at him.

He frowned – not entirely at them (even though their grins only grew larger), but more at the sense of annoyance that he felt towards them. It was just – odd. He stared back down at his hands and straightened his legs out.

Some things hadn't changed. But as he backed away, crab walking from under the arguing girls, and headed to join the other guys, it was clear that some things had. It wouldn't be very useful to dwell on _what was_ and _what had been_ (though he did sincerely hope that the Potter brat had succeeded in taking down the Dark Lord).

"GYAAAAAHHH!"

The blond kid in orange –_Naruto_- had sat up with a scream that was quickly cut short by a hard whack with a large stick, held by the chubby boy. Even before he could feel concerned about a possible head injury, Naruto was already twitching around, looking back and forth like a hyperactive puppy.

"EVERYONE HIDE! NO, GET DOWN NOW!"

He blinked at the comforting sense of familiarity that descended as everyone stared at Naruto. As the blond continued to wave and crawl along the forest floor, he brought one hand up to probe at the curse mark. He doubted _Orochimaru_ had meant to wake a second set of memories – people would be behaving much differently if he did –, but he'd take full advantage of it.

It wasn't exactly a family, but blood relations were overrated anyway.

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**A/N Cont:** ...so... how confusing was that? This is prolly the only chapter that'll be like this so... eh.

*reference to Professor Charity Burbage's death in Chp 1 of Deathly Hallows.

I know what I want to see in the fourth chapter (stuff with Kabuto)… but I'm still uncertain about what I want to see in the next chapter. I'm planning on alternating between 'Now' and 'then' for one more round, so any requests?

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Thanks for reviewing: **Gelasia Kidd**, **WRose**, **emmalleigh**, **Mari23**, **Mirthful-Malady**, **GuestGuy **(thanks! Just regular Sasuke before that. I think Severus, when he was young, did have some similar qualities to Sasuke as a child. They both sought to prove themselves, etc. Hope this chapter made sense), **Favored**


	3. Pleasantries

**A/N:** Realized that skipping back to the present would be odd if done too soon.

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**Act III.**

**Pleasantries**

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**Then:** Sasuke.

Ducking under the branch, Sasuke stepped over a protruding root and paused to look over his shoulder once more.

_This should be far enough. _

Crouching down, he once again checked his surroundings. He sensed no one nearby. With one last cautious look around, he climbed the adjacent tree, swinging himself up from branch to branch with ease.

The past two days had been… interesting. In some ways, he was almost glad that Naruto was on his team. The boy definitely drew attention like none other. And while Sakura's attention was often diverted towards scolding the blond, he knew she had her own suspicions that something was wrong with him by the way her eyes often lingered on his neck. Absently, he touched the mark again.

It still stung, like the lingering burn that followed a shot of firewhiskey.

Realizing his thoughts had wandered again, he closed his eyes and shook his head. Despite his efforts, his thoughts had been scrambled as of late, often drifting off into analyses of some random aspect of his life. It almost felt like the aftereffects of a concussion that'd sneak up on him whenever he relaxed his guard.

Letting out a slow breath, he emptied his mind and focused his attention on identifying the ambient sounds around him. After his fifth breath, he dropped down to a crouch. He couldn't dawdle much longer without raising his teammates' concern.

He had said that he was only gathering firewood.

Outstretching his hand, he whispered, "_**Accio **_Heaven Scroll."

Quickly, he stood up and casted the disillusionment spell.

The first day after the attack –_after he'd 'awakened'_– he had considered quitting the exam. As he was then, his instincts were all _muddled_, the ingrained responses were all wrong. He wanted to react to branches snapping by flicking his fingers forward, while somehow grabbing for a kunai to hurl at the same time. He wanted to cast a feather-light charm when he knew he could just augment his muscles with chakra.

It made him hesitate.

It made him _slow_.

And if it was one thing he was certain about, it was that he couldn't be slow. (Because slowness was equated to stupidity and was quite separate from caution. Slowness was cowardly, and he

_was __**not**_

a coward.)

.

And he knew he was the type of person to dwell (because he _had _to, you _had_ to reflect on everything that had gone wrong so that it could never happen again, because he wasn't an idiot), the combination of his memories had only made him that much more… critical. (_obsessive_).

And he knew that his racing thoughts were a distraction, but by the second day, when the bruises on the girl – on Sakura – had changed colors, he also realized, that the best chances of him uncovering why he was awake, of removing whatever he'd been _branded_ with, was for him to meet this Orochimaru character.

There was no way that man's presence in the exam was sanctioned. Even if that man had been allowed into the exam, either case would only further cement his suspicions – that he couldn't place his trust in the authorities.

He would know – he'd been one such authority, leading a lamb to slaughter. The very one he'd sworn to protect.

He snapped his head to the right as he heard an abnormally loud whisper of leaves brushing against one another. Muscles tightening, he turned his focus inwards, reaching out with all of his senses.

In any case, whether or not he wanted to continue with the exam in his current handicapped state, he still needed to get his team out of the forest – the sooner the better. Since he wasn't sure if they'd only be allowed to enter the tower with both scrolls, well…

He held up a hand just in time for the first scroll to slam into it. Swiftly, he casted two finite incantatem's successively.

…it wouldn't matter now.

Despite his quick reaction time, he still had to scramble to catch the second scroll with his other hand. He heard a soft thud to his left that was followed by another one to his far right.

With any luck, the teams that he'd just stolen from would arrive at the same time and be too preoccupied with fighting each other rather than pursuing him.

Still, he didn't want to test his fortune. He had no idea how fast the spell moved the scrolls – and how fast the scrolls' owners could run, which was why he'd pushed his team to as close to the tower as possible via the treetops.

Shoving one scroll down his shirt, he held the other one in his hand and sprinted towards the campsite just in time to see a silver-haired teen gripping Naruto's wrist, backed up by two other teenagers.

Skidding to a halt, he angled his body so that the hand holding the scroll was out of sight. The only thing that held him back from attacking was the Konoha insignia on the forehead protectors of all three intruders. Upon the sound of his arrival, the silver-haired boy looked up, while the two behind him tensed.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. _That face…_

"Ah, Sasuke-kun!" The kid stepped away from Naruto and raised a hand in greeting.

Wasn't this the boy that had introduced himself at the start of the exam? The seven-time exam retaker…. Kabuto?

Relaxing his posture, he straightened from the defensive crouch, and circled around closer to where Sakura was standing, "What do you want?"

This time, Kabuto raised both hands, almost placatingly while his teammates stiffened in apparent anger at his brusque question, "Relax – it just looked like your teammates were about to make a grave mistake is all…"

Although the boy was by all appearances friendly and apparently well-intentioned, something about the boy's closed eye smile made Sasuke's hackles rise. Sure, the teen might be a veteran of the exam, but those words seemed almost… playful – as if the boy was needling him for a reaction.

He kept silent and waited. He was tempted to reach out with his legilimancy, but the throbbing in his neck had only seemed to worsen with the spells that he had casted. While he wasn't certain if surface legilimancy would aggravate the mark, he felt certain that the situation hadn't warranted such a gamble just yet.

From his left, he heard Sakura speak up, "I… uh – what do you mean Kabuto-san?"

"Weren't you guys about to open that scroll? Or was I mistaken?"

At his words, Sakura stiffened in obvious guilt while Naruto pouted and opened his mouth.

From the corner of his eyes, Sasuke saw one of Kabuto's teammates shift his weight to the side, clearly impatient. From the way the older boy was taking his time, Sasuke suspected that Kabuto's team already had their scrolls.

Before Naruto could protest, Kabuto lowered his hands and took up a lecturing tone with one hand on his waist and the other held up, "In previous exams, those that ignored the rules were knocked out, placed under a genjutsu until the end of the test."

Immediately Naruto assumed a contrite expression and laughed uneasily, "Aaahh, we got luckyyy-"

Impatient, Sasuke stepped forward and gave Kabuto a stiff nod, "Thank you for your advice, but as you know, we're low on time."

Licking his lips, he shot Kabuto's companion another look before adding, "Leave."

As Naruto waved his arms up over his head, raging at his apparent rudeness, Kabuto only smiled, "Maaa, there's no need to be like that."

Sasuke tensed as Kabuto's teammate with the sunglasses stepped forward, "Kabuto."

Kabuto looked over his shoulder, "Relax… Yoroi."

Yoroi stepped back quickly.

Somehow, he seemed almost… cowed. Sasuke tensed. His knowledge of body language from another life was conflicting with what he was familiar with now and then. Still, he couldn't deny that all of his instincts agreed that something was off –maybe not dangerous, but … off.

Kabuto looked back and offered in a mild voice, "We could help."

He heard Naruto straighten in apparent interest, but Sakura placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, preempting whatever it was the blond had been planning to say. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye to see her watching him. Apparently, he hadn't been disguising his unease as well as he thought.

The pain pulsed again, radiating outwards and back like waves lapping at the shore. Annoyed, he shuffled his awareness of the pain to the side, into the deep recesses of his mind. Again, he replied curtly, "No, thank you."

With a shrug, Kabuto started to turn away, "If you're sure…" He then paused mid-step, "Ah, don't tell me you were afraid we'd poach on you?"

He stepped forward, in front of Sakura and signaled at her behind his back. _Get ready to run to the Tower. _

To his dismay, she shuffled forward, as if afraid, "Sasuke-kun…" His irritation was only heightened when he felt her bring up one hand to cling to his arm.

Naruto was frowning and shaking his head, "Whaaat? Noo – you helped us!"

Then he felt her squeeze in slight pulses. _Are you sure we can outrun them? _

Irritation abating, he signed back, _We'll have to._ At the same time, Kabuto reached slowly behind his back, "Ahh, you shouldn't trust so easily Naruto-kun."

As Naruto squinted his eyes in confusion, Sakura gave him tighter squeezes with her hand_, We don't have the scrolls_. _They won't let us in_.

"Luckily, you met me," bringing his arm back around, Kabuto showed them his hand, which held two scrolls – the very pair needed to pass the exam.

From the way Kabuto's teammates' brows were furrowed above their cloth masks, Sasuke could tell that they weren't exactly pleased with the latest move. Still, they made no motion to interfere.

He signaled again, _Yes we do_.

Tugging his arm out of Sakura's grasp, he met Kabuto's studious look and replied, "Then you guys should go – before someone takes them from you."

Kabuto gave him a careless shrug and an almost apologetic look at Sakura and Naruto, as if to say _I tried_. With an almost mocking bow, like that of an adult pandering to the demands of a recalcitrant child, he turned around, "Well then, I'm off."

He remained still as Sakura finally punched Naruto to quiet the boy's protests and watched as Kabuto led his team away. His eyes never stopped following the man, and he was rewarded when the boy looked back for the briefest of moments.

Gritting his teeth in preparation, he launched his mind forward and skimmed the boy's surface thoughts. It wasn't quite legilimency, and to his relief, there was no pain.

Kabuto looked away and soon it was just his team.

o

Other than a brief scuffle with some giant spiders, it took them maybe another seven minutes to reach the tower. With the way Sakura was panting, he almost felt bad for pushing his team that hard. Regardless, as he brought up the rear guard, he couldn't help but breathe out a sigh of relief as he heard the sound of Sakura opening the tower's doors.

Of course, that was when Kabuto's team emerged from the brush. He couldn't help the twinge of satisfaction at the genuine flash of surprise in the boy's eyes.

Sounding impressed, Kabuto smiled, "You beat us to the tower; you didn't need our help at all."

He met Kabuto's assessing eyes and spoke over Naruto's attempts to boast and be modest at the same time, "We got lucky."

With that, he turned around and shoved both of his teammates into the room.

.

Spies and kids equipped with destructive power and no true comprehension of what they held.

He hated them both.

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**A/N Cont.** Next chapter might be really short, just a heads up. Not really sure yet.

Not proofread the most carefully, but again, this is for plowing through writer's block for TT XP. Please point out any mistakes you see.

**Conception Note:  
**Accio. I figured the scrolls that were stuck in packs or other things would take longer to arrive, since the 'item' would be bigger and would crash into more things. ...kinda like electrophoresis (yes I went there :P)

As always, thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated.

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Thank you for reviewing. I've been really surprised at the interest in this drabble-fic XD: **Gelasia Kidd**, **tyog56**, **Grey-Rain-Cloud**, **emmalleigh**, **Mirthful Malady**, **Lady Lianna Kari**, **WRose**, **Why881992883840002882818839**, **My Ashland**, **The-Dancing-Fox**, **thunder18**, **laelruin**, **Willy Wonka is Wonking**, **fellow**, **HAL23**, **Slytherson**


	4. Eyes Wide Open

**A/N: **Ok, not as short as I thought. Played with pronouns again; sorry for any confusion. Sasuke's confused too XD

**Warning**: Mildly gruesome mention of wounds. I don't go into detail, but I mean when you're working with the aftermath of a weapon like the Samehada…

* * *

**Act III.**

**Eyes Wide Open**

* * *

**Now:** Sasuke**.**

He landed with a grunt that transformed into a hiss as his companion yelled and flailed. Blinking rapidly, he fought to recapture the stream of thoughts he'd found in those red eyes. There had been something not right with the pattern of his brother's thoughts, something -_guiltangerdenialfocusdespairfocus_- familiar.

"SASUKE!"

He barely managed to dodge Naruto's grab for his shoulder, but still, he was jolted. Immediately, despite himself, he bent in half, curling protectively over his left arm. Squinting one eye open, he gritted out, "Shut _up_ you imbecile."

Reflexively, Naruto responded, "_You_ shut up, you bastard."

Sasuke hissed, "_Just_ _lower your voice." _Darting a look around, he herded Naruto deeper into the alleyway, away from the busy streets of the marketplace. Heart hammering in his chest, he was only vaguely comforted by the fact that no one had seemed to notice their sudden appearance. Hopefully, they were in a busy enough district that they wouldn't be followed.

Of course, the blond talked straight over him, "What happened to your arm?!" Stepping forward, Naruto reached out faster than he anticipated and pulled his hand forward.

Hurriedly, Sasuke snatched back his arm, clamped his hand over the sodden cloth, and angled his uninjured side to Naruto, "Just a scratch, we need to – "

"I'M NOT AN IDIOT, YOU ASSHOLE-"

Sensing the sudden absence of the sun's rays on his neck, he felt his breath momentarily catch with alarm. He swung around with dread just as a mild voice spoke, "Could have fooled me."

With a loud shout, Naruto greeted the newcomer, "SUPER PERVERT!"

It was the sannin. He felt his knees weaken with sudden relief.

As Naruto charged forward, Jiraiya jumped forward with his own pointed finger, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!"

"SUPERPERVERTSUPERPERVERTSUPERPEEEERRRRRRVVV."

He took another breath as the urgency of the situation faded – along with the adrenaline that he'd been using to buoy him. He closed his eyes and made sure to take a deeper breath through his nose. His brother couldn't chase him here.

Itachi _wouldn't_ chase him.

He opened his eyes and felt his eyebrows draw together as he finally directed his attention to what was beneath his fingertips.

His skin was _shredded_.

Swallowing, he lifted his arm and attempted to pull bits of his sleeve from the bloody mess. _Breathe_.

He'd been through worse.

He squinted in irritation as a shadow fell over his arm. "_Kid._"

He looked up and blinked as he realized that the sannin had been trying to get his attention– for a while, judging by the mix of concern and irritation that he could see.

Scowling, he whipped his body back around – _no damage to the bone, it'd heal – _and huffed with an angled nod towards his teammate, "_Watch him_. The Akatsuki are after him."

Seeing the mix of shock and … amusement? …, he ducked around the sannin and started to stalk off only to choke as he felt a tug on his collar. Gagging, he flailed his legs in protest as felt himself lifted. Snarling, he opened his mouth to protest – and that was the last that he remembered.

o

The next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes to familiar white tiles of the hospital. He blinked once, before everything flooded back, and he sat up in a rush. Clenching his left arm tightly to his chest, he whipped back the blankets and swung his legs around the side of the bed only to freeze as he realized that he wasn't the only occupant in the room.

Conveniently, the clouds passed by in that moment, allowing the moonlight to briefly illuminate familiar features on the supine form.

_Kakashi-sensei_.

For a brief insane moment, he had a sudden urge to whip off the covers from his teacher's face. Even in slumber, his instructor was annoyingly persistent in hiding his face.

And at that thought, he frowned. The man was a light and somewhat restless sleeper. Seeing him sleep without so much of a twitch was unsettling. Hesitantly, he whispered into the dark, "Kakashi-sensei?"

If this was another joke, he was going to stab the man.

Stab the man, after drawing on his face.

He rubbed his eyes. What was he thinking? Swallowing, he let his hand drop down into his lap and took a deep breath. If he was here, and the last thing he could remember was the sannin, then the old fart had probably knocked him out.

He raised his left elbow and gingerly inspected it half by sight, and half by touch. The whole length of it was tightly bandaged.

Naruto was fine.

He glanced at his instructor, and the memory of Itachi's eyes flashed in his mind.

He let out a harsh breath before closing his eyes.

_Naruto was fine_.

Opening his eyes, he peered down, searching for the hospital slippers that he knew had to be placed somewhere near his bed. Once he spotted the pair, he carefully slipped off the bed, grimacing at the touch of cold tile before toeing on the slippers and shuffling unsteadily over to his instructor's side.

From what little he could recall before he had rushed off, _like a child_, Kakashi had been injured by his brother. Raising a hand, he reached for the man's face. From the little that he could see, his sensei looked fine.

How had he survived?

How had _he _survived?

He paused, fingers trembling just between his instructor's eyes, right over the edge of the blanket. _He_ shouldn't have survived. There had been no reason for him to survive.

_Testing his capacity_ – Kakashi had barely managed to use his sharingan to best Zabuza. He had only been an Academy student. Kakashi had _one_ sharingan; Itachi had two – which he used to kill a whole clan. And just how had his brother escaped? Why had he been spared? Kakashi didn't even have the Mangekyou. Why was he alive -? How had he survived?

He drew in his fingers, but his hand where it hovered.

_Why did you leave me alive?_

He studied his teacher's slack features. _Why did you spare him?_

Because no matter how he twisted and turned the possibilities in his head. His brother had been accused of wiping out an entire clan, the same clan responsible for policing the village, by himself. Yet, Kakashi had escaped as the single, sole casualty of the entire encounter?

His brother had thought him foolish, but that derision had been faint and tainted with the familiar sense of well-settled self-disgust.

'_If you've forgotten, perhaps I shouldn't have…'_

There had been that sense of dark enjoyment, the thrill and anticipation for tearing and piercing, puncturing through another warm body – of destroying and shattering and simply _breaking_. But underneath that excitement, beneath his deeper probe, there was a desperate, but determined, urgency – as if time was finite in an inescapable way.

And, if he wasn't mistaken, there was the urge to possess and protect, –

.

.

– which didn't make any sense.

Because, he'd felt that urge to destroy, to strangle and silence. He had felt the intent, seen the attack and the position of Itachi's hands right after he'd apparated, which was why he'd missed the downswing of that bandaged, _hideous_ sword.

It didn't make any sense.

A huff of laugh escaped him, and he withdrew his hand back towards his chest. He stared sightlessly in front of him.

It didn't.

It really, really didn't

Another huff escaped him, and another,

and another.

.

Because the thing was,

His eyes burned.

it really did.

Knees weakening, he let himself slip to the ground.

It really did make sense.

Cradling his injured arm, he rested his forehead against the side of Kakashi's bed.

It'd made familiar, awful sense, because he'd been there.

He'd done the same thing. (_He'd loved the green and hated the black; he'd ripped the smiles and tore the trust, and gathered hate against his chest)_.

But it didn't make sense. It couldn't. He'd spent his whole life – no, he hadn't – HIS WHOLE LIFE BELIEVING A LIE – but a lie for what?

As he blinked forcefully against the tears that threatened, he realized that he had one hand buried in his hair, fingers tangled and tugging harshly against his scalp.

_'Foolish little brother-'_

_'Snivelly, snivelly, Snivellus –'_

_'Cat got your tongue?'_

_'...can't ever be like him...'_

With a snarl, he yanked his hand away from his head and pressed it, hard, against his bicep, where he knew the cuts were the worst. Focusing on the pain, he pressed everything out, tight against his shields where they couldn't move and shift on him.

The facts didn't make sense as they were presented; unless they weren't facts, because it was twice now that he'd escaped. And while he could always have been _that lucky_, the people around him were also unharmed – for the most part.

He raised his head slowly at that thought, as he realized that his profess-teacher still hadn't made a sound.

Removing his hand from his arm, he absently wiped the dampness against the coarse fabric of his gown and stood. Again, he raised his hand and hovered it over his teacher's face. Again, the clouds parted for him, casting Kakashi's face in sharp relief and highlighting the dark smudges on his fingertips.

He frowned, and withdrew his hand to wipe his hand more firmly against his gown.

Under this lighting, his instructor's face suddenly seemed much younger. Despite the man's flippant mannerisms, Sasuke hadn't missed the man's focus on him during the Chuunin Exams.

It was hard not to, with Naruto calling it as favoritism, but there was something else beneath the attention that he had seen, a mixture of concern and reluctant recognition – or was it suspicion?

And underneath all of that?

Perhaps it was duty (but hadn't he been there before? With Lupin and Black and _Potter_-), but there was trust and belief in _him_, him when he'd shown nothing other than his abilities as a recalcitrant student.

He had no leverage, no one's ear. He was an orphan, again. And it wasn't like the disgusting surety of Dumbledore's gaze, in the knowledge and faith that he'd do what was right and necessary for the greater good.

No, Kakashi didn't have that. What he did have, was worry, and concern for his fallibility, and for his general well-being.

Just for him.

It was a strange notion in some aspects. And as much as he wanted to dismiss it – because it really was nothing special, he couldn't.

This time, he rested his thumb over Kakashi's left eyelid.

Like it or not, he owed the man.

He paid his debts.

Not to mention, he suspected that there was a reason that only Kakashi had been injured. And if his suspicion was right, then Itachi had focused on one primary weapon against Kakashi, and his sensei's only crippling injury was from the Mangekyou.

Doing this, would kill several birds at once.

Peeling the eyelid open, he leaned forward.

"**_Legilimens_**."

* * *

**A/N Cont:** :shrugs:

I don't know what I'm doing. :flops:

How much of that didn't make sense? I'm hoping that my frustration with my other work didn't bleed too heavily through this chapter.

Leave a word (a random word works too- just need something to kickstart the juices sometimes)? Thanks for reading :)

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Seriously, thanks for reviewing guys. All the love: **mabidiso**, **Mirhful-Malady**, **tyog56**, **WRose**, **ksecc1**, **recyclablefoxx**


	5. Spite

**A/N:** Huh, more people liked this than I expected. **Nothing too exciting**, but felt like a marker was needed in the past from an outsider POV…

* * *

**Act V**

**Spite**

* * *

**Then: **Kakashi.

.

'_What you do. What you say. It's all off. _

…_That seal you did – _

_it's __**meaningless**__.'_

_._

The words spoken by the sannin rang in his ears. How had he let himself fall this far? With a grunt, Kakashi flipped himself over the edge of the rock only to see that his student had arrived earlier than expected and was facing away, sitting on the other edge of the narrow mesa.

"I won't go to him you know."

Kakashi stared. Untying the hand behind his back, Kakashi rewrapped the bandages around his leg, "Did you finish the laps?"

Sasuke leant back onto both hands and let his head fall back to look up at him with an umimpressed glare, "What do you think?"

He smiled and ruffled the boy's hair in a movement too quick for the kid to dodge. Jumping back, he dodged the child's swipe. Sasuke's hair had definitely been damp enough to support the kid's words. The boy was growing faster than he had expected. Truth be told, he had been worried at the boy's sudden bouts of clumsiness following the preliminaries.

Though, that lack of coordination could have explained why Sasuke had forfeited. Partly.

He flicked his hand forward, dropping a scroll at his student's feet.

The boy glanced down before meeting his gaze once more, making no move to pick up the scroll, "What is it?"

Kakashi stared blankly back. With both arms outstretched to the side, he shrugged, "Saaa, who knows?" Looking skyward, he speculated, "It could be a cat."

"A cat."

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully, "Or maybe pants."

"Pants."

He noted how Sasuke's voice had dropped a register. Picking up momentum as further inspiration came to him, he spun around on one foot, "Or maybe Mr. Ukki. Say, Naruto did tell me that he wanted more plants, so maybe he-"

There was a tell-tale sound of a muted explosion that marked the sound of a storage seal being released and he looked over his shoulder to see Sasuke holding up a pair of weights.

Placing both hands behind his back, Kakashi leisurely spun around and started to stretch, "Attach them to your legs. I had them custom made for you, so they should fit right above your ankles."

There was a startled flicker of a look, before the boy grunted and crouched to attach the weights.

Kakashi watched Sasuke silently for a moment.

'_He will eventually seek me out. To seek power.' _

Orochimaru had seemed so certain of his words. But if Sasuke's warning had been correct, and the man had been the Oto-nin on the balcony, then the man had seemed just as surprised as the rest of the audience when Sasuke had forfeited.

That match with Akado had been one of those few matches where the victor looked like the loser and the loser, the victor.

And from what he had observed of the boy, he wouldn't be surprised of the kid had forfeited just to be contrary. His boys had always been a little headstrong.

As Sasuke finished fastening the last strap, Kakashi dropped his arms from where they had been raised overhead, "You were listening?"

Despite his non-sequitur, Sasuke didn't hesitate, "You didn't notice?"

The boy had certainly seemed out of it when Orochimaru had approached right after he'd finished his stopgap measure of sealing Sasuke's curse mark.

Kakashi gestured at Sasuke, and as the boy stood, he asked, "So he was wrong about you?"

Dusting off his pants, Sasuke replied, "That I would seek power? Maybe."

With a tilt of his head, telling his student to follow, Kakashi started off the light jog, "Oh?"

Sasuke huffed.

Kakashi looked down to his side, where Sasuke stared straight ahead, "That I would seek it from him?" The boy looked at him with an arched eyebrow – an expression the boy had started to show more and more as of late, "Probably not."

As his student returned his gaze to the front, Kakashi picked up his pace up the steep side of the cliff. In a mild tone, he asked "Why not? He _is_ a sannin." From the corner of his eye, he saw a brief flash of irritation as the boy pressed his lips together.

With a muttered curse, Sasuke picked up his pace, chakra flaring out slightly as the boy struggled to grip the cliff face. Running past Kakashi, Sasuke muttered, "Aren't you supposed to be persuading me otherwise?"

Underneath his mask, Kakashi grinned and raised the pace again, "Color me curious."

This time, Sasuke adjusted to the change of pace a little faster, "Would you?"

"Would I what?"

"Would you seek power from that man?" Kakashi blinked, before abruptly changing directions, causing Sasuke to skid and mutter another dark curse.

Holding off on his instinctive denial, he mulled over the question even as he called out, "I asked you first." Heh. He could almost feel the glare digging in between his shoulder blades.

Would he have?

He flashed briefly to the moments when he had been the most confused and troubled. To silence the nightmares? To undo what couldn't be undone?

Maybe.

Maybe, he'd seek more power to protect, to be _competent_. But, well, he'd always had trouble trusting in that certain way.

Minato had been the closest, the only one to really –

"He irritates me."

Kakashi glanced over to his side. Sasuke had caught up; his breathing was starting to become labored.

"Because he tried to kill you?" It had been an unnervingly close call with Kabuto, and it was clear that the boy hadn't been truly serious about killing his student. Sasuke had taken longer to wake than he had expected, and there were passing moments where he feared he had somehow missed Kabuto tampered with the drugs, that the curse mark had advanced to a new undiscovered state.

He had been a little surprised that his student had heard about the assassination attempt, but he wouldn't have put it past certain members of the jounin to gossip about what _they_ considered harmless classified information.

Sasuke shook his head once.

"No, because he presumes to know me."

* * *

**A/N Cont:** I had actually written two scenes before this (Sasuke and Yoroi's match and Orochimaru' threats to Kakashi after the Evil Curse Sealing), but neither seemed to 'fit' . Then, I considered playing with the scene where Kabuto outs himself, but it didn't seem to make sense to change that scene – maybe as a one-shot, but not as part of a larger storyline.

So you guys got this :D. If it wasn't clear, Sasuke forfeited the match with Akado Yoroi; he didn't make it into the finals. Headcanon is that he whispered "You'll never surpass Kabuto in Orochimaru's eyes; you're not even close" into Yoroi's ear during a chokehold, which had Yoroi stumbling back. … and then Sasuke surrendered. XD

Ok, thoughts on whether I should jump back to the present, or continue in the past?

* * *

You guys rock - loved the random words. Seriously, I learned a new word ('plagal' from Wonka).

To anon reviewers, I'll be deleting my responses to you when I post my next chapter.  
Anyway, thanks to: **My Ashland**, **Mirthful-Malady**, **recyclablefoxx**, **Why881992883840002882818839**, **Willy Wonka is Wonking**, **Frizzle93**, **ksecc1**, **Riddle7777**, **Angelic Hellfire**, **Temul**, **mabidiso**, **WRose**, **Solstice of Life**, **WishingWanderer**, **Guest** (haha, I thought of potato canons), **Kain Everguard**, **one123**, **marvis** (haha thanks! Yea, so writing another story that touches upon Itachi's 'guilt', I got a lot of comments going – 'how can no one tell that something's wrong?', which got me thinking to the fandom before the big reveal. I mean the most common theory on ffnet back then was that he just snapped from all the pressure. And then I was reading an article that was talking about how effective it was to just discredit women by labeling them as 'crazy' in the media, and well… same thing here right? I mean, once someone is labeled 'insane', it's basically 'ok' if no one can understand their motivations – because well.. they're insane. Sorry, this prolly got more introspective then you were looking for when you reviewed. XD), **Elspeth**, **InARealPickle**, **Xellos No Himitsu**, **Deer-Shifter**, **Sailor GaOn Donut**, **vincent1875**


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